I've just been directed to this, it's worth 5 minutes of your time...

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xakyg5

Chortle!

I just stumbled on this story on the Beeb website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12209143

About groups of people getting together to listen to records in their entirety, in the correct order and so on.

Strikes me as more than a little beard-strokey to be honest - no talking, no going to the loo, no fast forwarding past the duff tracks. I mean, really (pffffft).

Furthermore, I recently heard a radio feature about a gadget, the Playbutton, (http://www.playbutton.co/) which is essentially buying a copy of an album that doesn't allow you to shuffle. My immediate thought was that if I want to listen to an album all the way through, in the correct order, I can do that. I don't need a gadget dictating to me how I can listen to something, just as I can read favourite chapters in favourite books without having to read the whole book.

And more than that, on vinyl I could lift the needle and move it on and on a tape I could fast forward (and often did!) so why the absurd purity now? We've always mixed it up, shuffle is just the new way to do it.

Thoughts?

So, there I was, listening to the radio and announced is Michael Buble's new cover of Cry Me a River. Top tune, quite difficult to sing.

My goodness, what he's done is an abomination. First of all he's incredibly shouty and full on throughout the song, thus losing all the subtlety of it.

There is a big band backing him which also stomps all over it.

And worst of all, because he is a crap singer who can't handle subtlety and interesting minor key song structure he's changed the tune by singing everything in a major key. You might think that's nothing, but it matters because it alters everything.

You know that bit in Spinal Tap when Nigel Tufnell talks about how D Minor is the saddest key of all? It's true, minor keys really are like that! And this version of the song just sounds wrong. Utterly wrong.

And what upsets me most is that X factor applicants will hear it, think it's the real tune and what is a beautifully structured song will get lost.

I'm genuinely furious!

So, the Mr and I are both keen readers, subscribers and we both post on the blogs - we're both really enjoying the band/film cross over thread.

Does anyone else in the Massive share it with their nearest and dearest?

I was at UEA for Doves this evening and to be blunt it was a trial.

Why does someone pay money for a ticket and then spend the entire gig talking, loudly? Why would you do that?

The venue is pretty terrible in lay out anyway and once the floor has filled up everyone has to spill over into the back which has a very low ceiling so any talking just gets bounced straight back down and gets very emphasised but in the end I took direct action and turned to the man who was bellowing off to my left and said:

"Excuse me, I paid my money to listen to Doves, not you, could you keep your voice down please? I can't see them, I'd like to hear them..." They looked at one another, shut up and moved away.

Now I just have to figure out a way to stop people walking in front of me. I wonder whether just refusing to move would work?....

Wot no Jennifer Warnes? Famous Blue Raincoat (subtitled Jenny Sings Lenny!) is still one of my most played...

that I'd hear God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols on Radio 2, played by Dale Winton.

Today's random selection:

1. Slow Down Furry Dub by Merzclub. I have no idea what this is or where it came from. I think it may have been one of the pre-loaded tracks on my new machine...

2. To Have And Not To Hold by Madonna. I still quite like Ray of Light as an album.

3. something by 4Tet (I think).

4. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window by The Beatles. Abbey Road, my fave Beatles album.

5. Waiting For The Loveboat by The Associates. RIP Billy Mackenzie, still think of you each January.

Over to you chaps.....

All this Christmas talk has damn well put Daddy's Home by Cliff into my head. That's bad enough as it is, I now have to give it a bit of room or it won't go away.

Silently humming, it has just smoothly and oddly segued in Puppy Love by Donny Osmond.

Daddy's home (do do do)
Daddy's home
To sta-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay (and key change)
I cry each night
My tears for you
My tears fall like endless summer rain

And so on.

It's the demon offspring of 'I just can't get Blue Monday out of my head', or 'Rapture on the storm' or whatever is being mashed at the moment.

And it's just too strange.

It's just me isn't it. I'll get my coat.

So, this month's ish brought home by the Mr last night.

And of course the best of/worst of is Christmas themed - no reason why not...

The worst of list is an exercise in dread - anodyne cash-ins, and the thought of Scary Mary Carey being the best selling Christmas album ever is fairly horrifying.

I have just perused my Popbitch mailout and what do I see in their chart predictions but the following:

++ Top Twenty
MARIAH CAREY All I Want For Christmas Is You
THE POGUES Fairytale of New York

++ Top Forty
ANDY WILLIAMS The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
WHAM! Last Christmas
WIZZARD I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
SHAKIN' STEVENS Merry Christmas Everybody

Are these all really re-released or has someone spiked Popbitch's tea with a powerful hallucinogen?

I think I need a lie down.....

My Mr thinks that I am a weirdo because songs pop into my head all the time.

At the moment I have a song by All About Eve that has appeared for no reason - it's the one that goes "I am an ocean wave/I am a galley slave".

It can be totally random or it can be a strange form of word association where odd words will put things into my mind that just runs around until replaced by something else.

Outright suggestions are less successful - he's tried it with Goombay Dance band and Renee and Renato, both of which failed to take hold, thankfully.

And sometimes a song will repeatedly surge to the fore and then fade to the background over a period of time - I spent a lot of time accompanied by the theme tune to The Fall Guy, it would come and go for days on end.

So, does this happen to you? And what's in your head at the moment?

BTW, I believe that the germans call these 'ohrwurms' (earworms)!

Here's the thing: there are CDs in my collection that I KNOW I did not buy.

How did they get there? Were they left by someone who doesn't like me in an attempt to wreck my musical cred?

How else can you explain the presence of a CD by that infernal Twain woman?

Does anyone else have unexplained CDs? Share the pain....

I went to see Control on Sunday - and really loved it.

The performances are excellent, especially Sam Riley as Ian Curtis - the only teeny thing is that his accent is sometimes more Yarkshire than Macc, but then he is from Leeds! The actors playing Rob Gretton and Hooky are hilarious too, they've got some great lines.

And even though you know the ending it still comes as a shock.

But most of all, the music in the film is brilliant - I read that the actors were supposed to mime to the original recordings but after rehearsing they really wanted to play them themselves and were eventually allowed to do so - it's a much better way, the performances make the songs come alive and become so much more than "doomy Joy Division".

Go see it, it's great!

I always quite enjoy the 2 lists, and often disagree with it - this month no exception!

In the great tracks by generally rubbish bands some of the bands don't, I feel, have enough of a known output against which this can be measured.

Example being I can only name one Europe song anyway, and it might sound great at the christmas party, but be honest, it's not a great song.

And as for including Sailor - you are having a laugh aren't you? C'mon, apart from Girls, girls, girls, how many other songs can you name (without your Guinness Book of Hit Singles).

Apart from that, any fule kno that Barry Manilow's best song is I Made It Through The Rain...